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OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition comes with Warp Charge, a feature you will also see in OnePlus 7 next year

OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition comes with Warp Charge, a feature you will also see in OnePlus 7 next year

OnePlus 6T McLaren users can play games with any dip in performance or frame rates even when their phone is charging with the Warp Charge.

Recently when OnePlus launched the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition in India, for the first time we heard of a new feature that the company was apparently working on for the last few months. This feature is called Warp Charge, and it is one of the key differences between the regular OnePlus 6T and the McLaren Edition. More significantly, now that the Warp Charge is officially available, you can also expect to see it in the flagship phones from OnePlus in future, which means that next year, when the OnePlus 7 launches, it will likely come with Warp Charge.

So, what is Warp Charge? Since 2014 when the company launched the first OnePlus phone, it has offered a fast charging feature called Dash Charging in its phones. The Dash Charging quickly became one of the most loved features of the OnePlus phones. In fact, we then called it magical. Warp Charge is an update to the earlier quick charging solution that OnePlus used in its phones, and like a worthy update, it is faster and better than what it is replacing.

There are two components to the Warp Charge: a new and improved charger that is also rated for more watts -- 30 watts compared to 20 watts or the Dash charger -- and improved charging circuitry and battery design in the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition so that it can handle more power that its battery gets while charging.

Both -- the new charger and new charging circuitry -- means OnePlus worked on the Warp Charge for a considerable time before it started putting it in its phone. Oh, and in case you are wondering about the name, it has been kept to pay homage to Warp Drive from the world of Star Trek- the drive that powers starships like the USS Enterprise.

Coming back to the Warp Charge, this new charger features improved internal design. In a forum post, a OnePlus engineer explains, "Warp Charge 30 can carry a larger current than regular fast charging solutions. Normally, the heat generated through charging is dissipated in the phone itself. This usually causes performance issues if the phone is being used while it's being charged leading to CPU and GPU speeds being throttled. By shifting the majority of the power management and heat dispersion to the Warp Charge 30 Adapter, however, very little heat ever reaches the phone."

Essentially, what this means is that OnePlus 6T McLaren users can play games with any dip in performance or frame rates even when their phone is charging with the Warp Charge.

At the same time, there are engineering changes inside the phone to ensure that the OnePlus 6T McLaren edition doesn't get unnecessarily hot while charging. Yet again, the post on the OnePlus community forum explains it well, "The large amount of power Warp Charge 30 produces inevitably generates a large amount of heat. (So) Our engineers altered the safety mechanisms of the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition's battery assembly. They upgraded the components of the battery protection structure to allow for the larger current, and added an eight-layer protection board to the battery to provide more efficient cooling."

The result is that the Warp Charge 30 not only charges the OnePlus 6T McLaren at a rapid pace -- 20 minutes of charging fill up 50 per cent of 3700 mAh battery -- but also does so while keeping the phone cool.

Now, all this engineering has a flip side too. For now, the Warp Charge 30 is only compatible with the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition. People can use the Warp Charge 30 to charge their OnePlus 6T or older phones, but they will be charged at a speed that was available through the earlier fast chargers, including the 20W Dash Charger.

But now that the feature is here, you can safely assume that it will be part of the flagship OnePlus phones in future. In 2019, OnePlus is expected to launch OnePlus 7 which may also come with 5G support. This phone will have a Snapdragon 855 processor inside it. Or it is possible that we may see two OnePlus phones in the first half of 2019: OnePlus 7 and a separate OnePlus phone with 5G. But irrespective of whatever these phones are, you can expect that the Warp Charge will be one of their key features.